East Austin Taco Ride

The first time I heard about the East Austin Taco Ride was when I was taking down some cold ones with Rene and Juan (owner and official handshaker at Juan in a Million) at the Best of Austin Chronicle party. We were celebrating the fact that we got free beers, oh and we were also recipients of some awards. Rene's my go to guy for my two wheelin' ranflas. He's the owner of Longhorn Bikes on East Cesar Chavez, next to Juan in a Million. Rene told me about this ride that they do every Saturday through East Austin and their mota-vashion for finishing the ride: eating tacos, oh yeah. I liked the sound of that, so I joined them last Saturday.

Naturally, I picked up my friend Rules, put the bikes in my truck and drove to Rene's shop. We needed a little boost so we had some coffee from Juan's (I think it was Sanka or somesing). Didn't matter, we needed the juice. We met the gang and started our journey. We started off with a stroll down the "in yo face" gentrified neighborhoods of Cesar Chavez and made our way to the Hike and Bike Trail. Unlike most people that hit the trail, we headed east (away from the Migra!). We passed the Holly Plant, went under the heavily urinated Pleasant Valley bridge and made it almost to 183. We were stopped by a no trespassing sign from some kind of development project as well as our interest in a crackity crack house next to it. We detoured from the trail and ended up at a dirt bike motorcross place. And that's when the hi jinx started! Check out the video for some proof...

After this great display of athletisism mixed with acrobatisism, we headed back, parked our bikes and rested our big nalgas at Juan in a Million. I had the Machado and Eggs, beans and bacon taco. It was pretty good, not sure if it was due to the exhaustion or the bacon grease. My friend Rules had the Don Juan. He said it was okay, that it had too many potatoes and I forgot what others had. It was a rough morning people. I guess we'll have to reserve a real visit to Juan's for a later time.

So who ended up going? We'll let me tell ya, it's the biking version of the Bad News Bears and just like them we have our own charm and uniqueness.....